Senators and Devils Have Power-Play Issues, but for Different Reasons

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OTTAWA - The power play, early in this NHL season, for both the Ottawa Senators and the New Jersey Devils is proving to be a little troublesome but for different reasons.

The Devils are having a hard time capitalizing on their man-advantage opportunities while the Senators are having a hard time not providing their opposition with them.

New Jersey did manage to score a power-play goal Thursday night in their 5-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators, but they had seven power-play chances.

Travis Zajac scored early in the third period with the Devils heading towards the end of an extended 5-on-3 advantage. It was the team's first power-play goal since the third game of the season and just the second they've scored thus far.

The Senators, on the other hand, have gotten into a bad habit of taking bad penalties all season long, and have allowed at least one power-play goal against in all but two of their seven games this season.

They have been shorthanded 38 times -- tied with the Philadelphia Flyers for most in the league -- and have allowed seven goals against. Twice they have allowed two goals in a game and in both of those games they lost by a single goal.

"We take way too many penalties and in my opinion they're lazy penalties, for want of a better term," Senators coach Paul MacLean said after Thursday's win.

"We reach instead of moving our feet and skating and we end up taking penalties because we're reaching with our stick and that turns momentum the wrong way. With seven-and-a-half minutes left in the second period we're up 2-0 and we take four minor penalties. All four of them we didn't have to take."

Two of the penalties the Senators took Thursday were for holding, another for hooking and another for interference. Those are all the types of penalties that drive coaches crazy.

"That's something that we're going to have to clean up. Especially the ones in the offensive zone and the ones when we don't have the stick on the ice," said Senators defenceman Erik Karlsson, who has taken but a single minor penalty this season. …